Test shot. This is just a shot of Kosmo so that I could figure out how to upload pictures directly from the camera. It worked.

3 more sleeps then we are off. Everything seems to be booked I guess we shall find out! I hate waiting. I don't do anything because I am obsessed with the trip. I figure I can always find something to research about somewhere we are going to be. I don't feel as ready for the tourist part as I did last year. Oh well two whole days to figure it out.

OK so now all the hotels are booked. I took the weekend to completely ignore hotels. Now I am on the fun quest to find how to get from airports to hotel, train stations to hotels, boats to hotels. You would think this would be simple but for some reason the directions on the hotel web sites are a little vague. On trip advisor people just say use a cab.

I am not that much of a princess.

We are not afraid of public transit!

We will figure it out. We did it last year without having that much in advance and this time our arrival times seem to be more reasonable. Less arriving in the middle of the night when very little is open and we don't have a map or know how to use the metro yet. I am confident in our abilities. (What I am not mentioning is that Ryan probably did all this last year and had it in his head. I am having a new admiration for all the work he did last year, I had no clue!)

8 days to go. We have started the packing process and the search for liquid supplies that are in less than 90ml bottles. Pretty good so far just a few things left. We feel a little more seasoned in the travel department because we realized that we are going to have less clothes and we are gone for a week longer. The cameras are smaller as well.

Oh yeah. Ryan made it home OK. Walmart was open and his battery was in stock. After purchasing a few tools and a little time in the parking lot he made it to his hotel fine. Good thing he is a little bit handy.

Holy Crap. Booking hotels is not fun. I have been doing research for quite a while and I thought I had it all under control. First things first, the hotels that we have points for are not worth it or out of the way. By not worth it I mean that Ryan uses the points to book hotels for his Masters weekends and a few points gets him a nice place, so the places in Europe would have to be low points for an expensive place to be worth it. To make a long story short Ryan has figured out how many points per Euro each of the hotels is worth and his hotel in Vancouver is still the best use of points. So we have to pay for all the nights. Not that bad but it takes a lot more research to find a great location, air conditioning and breakfast included for an average price of $100-110.

I know I know you are thinking what a princess. She could stay at a hostel or a pension for way less. I admit it I am a whimp. I feel pretty brave for going to foreign countries where dumplings are king and having a wheat allergy. Some of you might have experienced my oh so patient mood when I can't find food. We run into this problem quite a bit. Ryan can go forever and I am stubborn and proud and suffer in silence until it is too late, the bitch has arrived. Having a minimalist hotel on top of this makes things not so fun. (There are tears) (I told you I am a whimp)

So I spent from 8:30 - 4:00 parked in front of the computer doing research. The TV didn't even turn on, for those that know me well they know that the TV is always on. I don't really watch it it is just on. I stopped a few times to get food and take the dog out to pee. Kosmo was kind enough to force me to leave the house for a short trip but running through the raspberry fence at the back and heading out into the grasslands, by himself. Chasing him down was a 20 minute diversion but then back at it (Kosmo only got to be in his run to be outside)

So I spent all of this time and only got half the hotels booked. I won't fool myself into thinking that I have it all under control. It is agonizing to actually book. Is it the right place, is it too far away, is the tram/metro easy to use, did every one on trip adviser lie and the place is really a dump, is it actually going to work or am I going to show up and have no room. Then once booked there is the sudden panic that I booked the wrong dates, or that the room has no amenities etc. I know I am a freak but these are all things that went through my mind.

Now it is 11 pm and I am sitting back with a glass of wine looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow.

I am also sitting here worrying about Ryan. He called me as he sat in his car at the border at 9:45 and lets me know that the car is having electrical problems and that he had to get it jumped to get is started. We think it is the battery, the car runs well as long as his foot is on the gas. The line at the border was fun. He calls again and then I begin the search to find a 24 hour Walmart as close to the border as possible. No Go. I then search near his hotel in Surrey but they close at 10. I do find one in Langley that is open until 11. Pedal to the metal baby. I sit here now just waiting for the call about the results. Then I am going to bed, long day ahead of me.

I am finally organized enough to post an itinerary.

Aug 3 Travel to London

Aug 4-6 Warsaw Poland

Aug 7-9 Krakow Poland

Aug 10 -12 Prague Czech Republic

Aug 13 Brno Czech Republic

Aug 14-15 Bratislava Slovakia

Aug 16-17 Vienna Austria

Aug 18-20 Budapest Hungary

Aug 21 Zagreb Croatia

Aug 22-23 Ljubljana Slovenia

Aug 24-26 London England

Arrive home 7 pm on Aug 26

Flights to Warsaw are now booked. We are pretty sure about the beginning part of the trip but still not sure about the end. We are scheduled to spend ~8hours in Zagreb Croatia and a Day and a half in Ljubljana Slovenia. This seems like a decent amount of time in each but it is hard from a travel book and the flight back to london is getting more expensive as I type (or so it seems) Ryan found a flight from another Slovenian location for one european penny. There is a huge appeal for taking a flight for a penny, but there doesn't seem to be anything to do in the town for a day and a half and there is nothing worse that just waiting for the next thing to happen (i.e. the flight) so I don't think that we are going to book it. It would be a good story but I am not sure the story would be worth it.

4 weeks to go!